Cubs win 4-1 As Ethier Sits Game Out
LOS ANGELES (AP) Carlos Zambrano out-pitched former teammate Ted Lilly with eight solid innings, and the Chicago Cubs scored all of their runs on homers by Geovany Soto, Carlos Pena and Marlon Byrd in a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.
Andre Ethier's 29-game hitting was put on hold when the Dodgers scratched their All-Star right fielder because of an inflamed left elbow.
Dodgers shortstop Juan Uribe left in the sixth inning with a bruised left hand, two innings after being hit by Zambrano.
Zambrano (4-1) allowed a run and five hits, struck out four and walked one. He gave the Dodgers a dominant dose of payback after his 7-3 loss to them on April 24 at Wrigley Field.
Lilly (2-3) was rocked for five runs and eight hits in six innings. It was the first time the two-time All-Star surrendered three or more home runs since July 4, 2001, with the Cubs, when Cincinnati hit four off him in a 14-3 rout at Wrigley.
Zambrano and Lilly were teammates on the north side of Chicago from 2007 until last summer. Lilly was then traded to the Dodgers and won his first five starts for them. Since then, Lilly is 4-7 with a 4.91 ERA in 14 starts and had allowed 14 home runs in 80 2-3 innings.
The Cubs, who were guilty of baserunning blunders throughout this three-game series, ran themselves into outs in the third and fifth innings. Alfonso Soriano tagged up and tried to make second after a flyball by Carlos Pena, but left fielder Tony Gwynn Jr. threw to second baseman Aaron Miles for the slap-tag.
Jeff Baker tried to stretch a bloop hit near the right-field line into a double and was out on Jay Gibbons' quick peg. Soto came up next, driving a 2-2 pitch into the pavilion seats in left-center for his third homer.
Pena, who hit his first home run in a Cubs uniform during Tuesday night's 4-1 victory, led off Chicago's four-run sixth with a drive into the lower seats in the right field corner. Zambrano and Darwin Barney singled before Byrd sent Lilly's next pitch over the left-field fence for his first homer.
Gibbons, in his second game back from the disabled list after missing the first 30 because of vision problems, batted third in Ethier's place and was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. It was his first start in right field since last Aug. 15 in Atlanta, when he lost a flyball in the sun that was hit by Troy Glaus and a run scored.
NOTES: Jonathan Broxton, the Dodgers' 6-foot-4, 300-pound closer, won't pitch until after an MRI exam of his aching right elbow. He walked consecutive batters on four pitches each and was charged with two runs in the ninth inning of a 4-1 loss Tuesday night. ... The Dodgers are scheduled to face Mets starters Jonathon Niese, Chris Young and R.A. Dickey in a series that begins Friday night at New York. Ethier is 12 for 29 against Young with six homers, 10 RBIs and five walks; and 1 for 2 against Dickey. He has never faced Niese, who pitches the series opener. ... The switch-hitting Zambrano, whose 20 career homers are a Cubs record for pitchers, sent Gwynn to the warning track with a first-pitch drive in the third inning.
